LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 56, 4 September 1923, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Before the Prims Minister left New Zealand for the Imperial Conference the Institute of Journalists wrote conveying to him the good wishes of its members for the success of his mission and his personal welfare—wishes which would have been conveyed personally if there has been a suitable opportunity. In acknowledging the letter, Mr. Massey wrote: "I regret that the wish of your council to bid me au revoir personally ivas not possible, as I should have had very much pleasure in meeting those gentlemen face to face, and thanking them not only far the kind good wishes you send me ion this occasion, but also for the many and varied courtesies shown to me on all occasions hy the members of the fourth estate. I shall look forward to my return to our own little country with deep interest and anticipation, arid hope then to meet you all well and hearty." Several Ministers of the Crown will be absent from their offices at the Parliament Buildings during the next few days, seeking rest in their electorates after the arduous work of the session. The Minister of Agriculture (the Hon. W. Nosworthy) left for the South last week-end, and is due back in Wellington about the beginning of. next week, while the Minister of Defence (the Hon. Sir R. Heaton Rhodes) is at present in Christchurch, and expects to r«tum to Wellington within a. week. The Minister/of Labour (the Hon. G. J. Anderson) intends to leave by to-morrow night's ferry steamer for a week's sojourn in his electorate (Mataura), and the Minister of Education (the Hon. C. J. Parr) will be in Auckland for some days after to-morrow. / . • ■ .

A party of trampers who visited Terawhiti on Sunday were treated to what is nowadays a very rare sight, a large barque running through the Straits with every stitch of canvas spread to the fresh northerly breeze. She 'was- first sighted hull-down beyond Stephens Island at about 11.30 a.m., coming up fast before the wind, and was. a-breast of the cape at 3.30 p.m. Under a cloudless sky, and with the snow-capped Kaikouras as a. background, the barque wasa beautiful picture as she stood on through the Straits. Thirty years ago it was a common experience to see sailing vessels off the cape, but the growth of steam tonnage is steadily driving the old familiar white-wings from the trade routes of the Pacific.

Some idea of the strained relations existing between the Wellington Boxing Association and the New Zealand Boxing Council was given at. a meeting of the local association last evening, when a request for the payment of the annual subscription was received from the council. The treasurer, Mr. B. Guise, explained that he had not forwarded the amount until'he could confer with the other members. A levy of a further 2£ per cent, had previously been made on the association, allegedly for the purpose of financing the amateur team to compete in the Australasian championships, but apparently the money had not Ibcen used for this purpose. Mr. Staples: "I will move that Mr. Atack be asked for a statement of accounts before the money is paid over." Mr. Mellish: "I am strongly opposed to seeing 'the money used to finance a team of men who. are not champions of New Zealand, and who never would have been if a proper tournament had been held and all the rules observed. However, we have got to be careful that the council does not cancel our affiliation, and thus bar us from holding the conference tare in October." The president, Mr. E. W. M'Villy, was of the opinion that the association should keep itself financial, and at his suggestion, it was decided to forward the requested subscription. On the motion of Mr. Staples, seconded by Mr. Woods, it was then decided to write to the council, demanding a statement c-{ account^..

The Postal authorities have received advice from Sydney that the Marama, which left at 11 a.m. on the Ist instant; tor Wellington, carries 898 bags of mails for the Dominion, including 187 from Australia, 597 from beyond, and 114 parcel receptacles. The mail from beyond includes East 21 and Africa 3

Cabinet has decided to pay a subsidy of £500 to the New Zealand Flaxmillers" Association for the purpose of continuing experimental work in flax investigations, and has also agreed that the amount collected as a result of the extra charge of 6d per ton on hemp graded be paid to the association.

A remarkable coincidence attaches to the deaths of Mrs. Elizabeth Barnes and Mr. Andrew Jennings, a brother and sister—two well-known and esteemed Nelson colonists, in that they both passed- away a short time after 7 o'clock on Friday evening last, their deaths being coincidental almost, to the mhiutß. The deceased were both members of a' well-known Nelson familyr Their parents came out -to Nelson in the ship Mary Ann, and the family have lived at Nelson for some 82 veare.

It is a long time since earthquakes were reported from Taupo, and the sensational series which disturbed that district is a thing of the past. However, a sharp shock occurred there at 3.15 p.m. on Satufdav, followed by two lighter shocks at 3.17 and 3.18," states the "New Zealand Herald." A report to the Government Seismologist, Dr. C. E. Adams, states that the-first shock lasted about 20 seconds, and its direction was from north to south. No damage was reported.

At about 9.30 on Monday morning, says the Nelson "Evening Mail," the Fire Station received the startling news by telephone ' that the Mental Hospital was on fire. The alarm was sounded and the fire engine was very promptly rushed to the .supposed fire. No smoke. <>r other signs of the outbreak were visible, and ib began to dawn on the members of the brigade that they had been "taken in." This belief was confirmed when they were told that one of the inmates had escaped that morning, and it was undoubtedly he who had <,given the alarm. The escaped alarmist was subsequently discovered and taken back into custody. *

The annual accounts of the Christchurch municipal electricity department were presented to the Ohristchurch City Council last night. The profit for the year on the trading account wae £253 and on the electricity working account £18,996, making a total of £19,249, which, added to sinking fund accretions of £3520, makes a total of £22,769 available for distribution. Of this total, the sum of £9149 ■was .applied partly to the cost of the Waimakariri scheme investigation and to sinking fund accretions^ transferred to general reserve, and the balance of £13,620 is transferred to the general reserve, which now stands at £58,070. This amount is altogether apart from the special reserves provided for depreciation and renewals.

Sargents Limited, the great feeders of Sydney s mealers-out, reports a net profit for the June half-year of £4034 or £8660 less than in the prel vious -half-year, . the decline ~heing ascribed to the prices charged for meals, and increases in rents, "wages, and taxes.. Another reasou, not stated (says the Sydney correspondent of Melbourne' "Age"), appears to be the many ex--tensions that have. been made during the .last twelve months. But Sargents will. not starve. They have plenty, of property and solid reserves. This is one of the big oaks that so surprisingly grow from little acorns. The original Sargents was a little shop in which' pies made by Sargent pere. were sold—pies so excellent that a demand grew for them, which in time had to be satisfied by^full meal shops, fish shops, and so on. Now-, the big firm. has almost a, monopoly of its particular kind of restaurants, and can afford the £4000 which it has had: to take from equalisation reserve in order to pay its 10 per cent, per annum this time. A party of 33 Aucklanders who left on 12th August for a holiday at The Hermitage, Mount Cook, all express themselves, in enthusiastic terms with regard to the general comfort'and rapidity of travel and complete absence of any inconvenience from cold. In the early part of the holiday (states "The Post's" Auckland correspondent) there were large falls of snow, thus giving facilities for all forms of winter sports in the immediate vicinity of The Hermitage. The popularity ..of this form of holiday was shown by the fact that during one week-end there were as many as 70 guests in bhe hotel, while during the other week-end there were 62. The majority of the members of the party made good- progress in the.art of ski-ing under the instruction received from the guides. A group of twelve travelled on ski from The Hermitage, via Mueller Glacier, to Mueller Hut. a total distance of fourteen miles, and involving a climb of over 3000 feet. The run back down the middle of the glacier was something which all who made it state will not readily fade from their memories. One outstanding feature of the journey was the shortness of time occupied in covering the distance between Auckland and The Hermitage. The party left Auckland on Sunday evening and reached its destination in time for dinner on Tuesday evening. When, on the occasion of the eruption of Mount Tarawera, the famous and picturesque pink and white terraces of New Zealand disappeared many years ago— the bottom of the neighbouring Lake Rotomahana. was blown out at the'same time—one of the show places of the world was dramatically blotted but. But Nature is trying to make amends for this loss. With the aid of man, it is attempting to supply the equivalent of the historic terraces. That these artificial methods, however, have not so far been very successful is interpreted by the .Maoris as a judgment on man for interfering with Nature. Professor R. Speight, Professor of Geology, and Curator of the Canterbury Museum, ivho is attending the Pan-Pacific Science' Congress, and who arrived in Sydney from New Zealand recently by the Marama, said in an interview that there are people who believe that the famous terraces which were swept out of sight with the eruption of Mount Tarawera are buried ■underneath the material thrown out of the neighbouring lake when Tarawera manifested a spirit of hostility toward the beauties of Nature around it, and broke forth into violent emission. Professor Speight has no definite theory on the point; he is more concerned with the attempts of Nature in other places to supplant these lost wonders. "At one or two places," ho remarked, "ter-race-building is unquestionably proceeding or. a small scale, and with any- revival of thermal activity, of which there are some slight indications at present, terraces such as those which hove now disappeared may be created on a smaller scale." Another phenomenon, geologically, had also manifested itself in New Zealand. Its famous geysers were, «n the whole, declining in activity, according to Professor Speight.' One of the most famous' of the geysers of New Zealand, which used to toss a column of water to a height of 2000 ft, had stopped flowing for some years. Other geysers were not so active aa they used to be. 'Volcanic action," said Professor Speight, "must reach a maximum, and then decline. In all probability, that is ■what has happened; or is happening, in ,I}ew Zealand to-day."

The Ulimaroa, which left Sydney at noon on the Ist instant for Aucldand, carries for Wellington six bags of mails from Australia and 254 parcel receptacles, . . . .■■-,-

"From time to time during the past' year various officers of waterside un-: ions throughout New Zealand have written to " The : Transport Worker " asking what .was wrong with the Wellington Union and how it wag that nbthiig was reported from mouth to month. We have no excuses to tender," says the " Transport Worker," "other than that we have been raced and chased by the hard-driving forces of the law, and have not had time to stop to breathe. A great many of our people are legal-minded."

'^Praise has come from England at the' creditable manner in- which -wool has been sorted by students of the Christchurch Technical College," said Dr. D. E. Hansen, the director,-at a meeting of the Board of Governors of the college. In his report the director stated that the wool-sorting classes had teen rendered much more interesting through the kindness of Waiter Hill ■ and Sons, who. forwarded ten bales of wool to be sorted before being sent to the scouring works. The opportunity given in this way to students to show their practical knowledge gained during Ac session bad been much appreciated, and the thanks of the college were due to the firm. Mr. F. E. Cooke stated that he -would like to know what was thought of the work of the students. He had been told that in New Zealand ■there was a great scarcity of really efficient wool-sorters. Was! the college giving instruction that would really benefit the students when they got on the job in earnest? Good woolsorters -were needed (reports the Christchurch ''Sun"). Dr. Hansen then quoted the references h e had received of the manner iv which .the wool sent Home was sorted. Years ago, he said, there had been complaints. But that was changed, and the instruction given had enabled the boys to perform their duties creditably. There had been inquiries from overseas as to the classes at the.college. In fact, he had recently received from a young man in America a letter asking if he could take the course at the Christchurch Technical College.

Dr. iT. M'Kibbin, medical officer of health for Otago and Southland, being asked if be had any comment to make on Dr. Herbert's statement as to the prevalence of t cancer in New Zealand, replied that the official figures justify the' assertion that if heart disease and all sudden deaths from so-called heart diseases be deducted, cancer easily leads in the list of most common cause of death in New Zealand, reports the Dunedin "Star." In the year 1921, the last year for -which the official figures are published, the deaths from heart disease were set down as 1512 but of the 10,682 deaths registered, and cancer caused 1044. "It is to be remembered," said Dr. M'Kibbin, "that '• the expectation of life in New Zealand .is greater than in most countries, therefore there are more persons here who reach, the age at which cancer is to be feared. It is also to be borne in mind that nowadays the doctors are making more exact diagnoses, and set down as cancer many cases that in former "years would not be so identified. But statisticians now admit that, apart from these two factors, there is undoubtedly a steady increase in the death rate from cancer, both in the United Kingdom and in New Zealand. In the Old Country one female in eight and one male in ten die of cancerafter the age of 35. The only consolations are—first, that cancer ,is slowly increasing in most countries, and New Zealand is not womb off in that respect than many other countries; secondly, that each of the last two years for which the returns are available (1920 and 1921) shows a slight fall in the cancer death, rate in New Zealand." • After having devoted the greater part of his lifetime to the difficulties associated with land title; .remarked the Hon. A. T. Ngata in an- address at fatratford, he was only just now beginning to bring about improvement. It would take time, but he hoped to leave to his children some better heritage than he had been given. Only during the last few years had they been able to make any progress with regard to the development of land. On the East Coast the land scheme was now work-' mg well,, and he was hopeful that further improvements in the land question would result. The Native was I> 3m with a great handicap, such as the pakeha could not realise. The handicaps of ancestry were associated with everything connected with the Native land problem. Another great handicap was the colour line. The speaker then touched on the difficulties which the Maoris had to wean themselves away from the communistic system 'of living and to^adopt the individualistic mode of lite. With the communistic life was associated the land question, and it was hoped m time freehold would be acquired and dealt with similar to the pakeha. He mentioned the methods adopted on the' East Coast where the farms were, run on business principles Of education, the speaker said that had done more for the pakeha than anything else. He strongly advocated greater education facilities, and said that where possible they did their best to push on from the secondary schools to the university. ■ ' • ' "Unless steps are soon taken to deal with the goats aiid the opossums the mountain will soon become a reserve ?\t ™ammalSl" decla«d a member of the Mount EgmohT National ParkBoard at New Plymouth last week The Commissioner read an application from two men, who had opossum licenses, for .permission to. shoot goats and to be supplied with rifles and ammunition. They mentioned that their, opossum traps were being upset by the goats, which were about m considerable herds Mr Kitchenman, of Kahotu, mentioned. that arge herds of wild goats had recently Kn,L ST m *^ u vicintty of Rahotu House, driven thither no doubt by the shortage of feed lower down. Mr T C List said that the goats were " doing an immeasurable amount of damage in the park by ring-barking the trees, particularly the young trees, and ' action was necessary to cope with the danger (reports the" Taranaki Daily News '). Mr. J. B. Richards eaid this was a matter for the Government, which should give them a grant in order to exterminate the pest. He knew the seriousness of the position, and favoured aPPf ach _m«t he Government for ance. Mr. Hugh Batly said that there was another danger. The ring-barking that was going on killed the trees which became dry, and in case of fire they might easily lose large tracts of irreplaceable bush. Members felt it would be little use approaching the Government at present, and consideration of the measures to be taken to combat the ravages of the goats was deferred until next meeting.

Criticising the clause in the Finance Act, 1523, which authorises the Gov-ernor-General to appoint Mr. J. H. Eichardson, retired Government Insurance Commissioner, as an additional member of various boards of th a Public Service, the " Public Service Journal " lor September states: " When the Government makes special legislative' provision for an addition to boards, already having an ample personnel, of ii retired Public servant verging on 70 years o£ age, it surely suggests that those who follow him cannot be fully trusted to manage affairs efficiently—yet the new Government Insurance Commissioner, to mention one, is an actuary as well. For the Government to take this Step suggests an ingrained conservatism and a doubt that' ' there are as good fish, etc' If an ex-Government Insurance Commissioner is an essential to the Mates financial welfare, then why Mota displaced Minister of Finance?. . Y«t w e have cot heard a whisper of Sir J G. Ward being called in by the present Ministry. Has not the British Government been able s to carry on with credit, without the leadership of Mr Lloyd George? Was not the war carried on just as .energetically desoite Loril Kitcheners untimely end? * Had MrRichaTdson unfortunately died, instead of retiring, would the financial business °L t, ,vernmenfc hdve been weakened? If the reason actuating the re-ap-pomtment is.that there is nobody now available with sufficient business calibre, then it is surely a travesty on the much-vaunted reputation of the Service as a field for ambitious men, offerin" opportunities for advancement to those willing to take them."